and everything in between....

Sunday, February 1, 2009

My budget, spending & sad explanations of why things went the way they did.

Clothes & Beauty: Budgeted $30, Net Spend: $2. I actually spent around $22 but returned a top I bought on boxing day for about $20 canceling out most of the purchases made here.

Eating out: Budgeted $100, Spent $111. I knew this would be hard to maintain & sure enough, I spent $111 for Jan. I didn't have anything out of the ordinary, it was a normal month of eating out w/ friends.

Entertainment: Budgeted $50, Spent: $16. I originally had more here but the bf paid for a show I went to earlier & so I removed that. Even though it cost $35 for my ticket, I didn't pay for it. How do you & your significant other pay? We have a laissez-faire approach where I pay once & he pays the next kinda hoping that it evens out at the end of the day.

Gas: Budgeted $150, Spent $109. Wohoo!

Groceries: Budgeted $100, Spent $104. Pretty close to what I had budgeted so no complaints despite going slightly over.

Misc: Budgeted: $50, Spent: $10. I originally put in a gift I had purchased, in this category for $56. After lots of thinking I decided that gifts should be something separate and not part of the monthly budget. My reasoning is that gifts are something I don't expect to buy every month. Also I have my brothers wedding to attend to and I plan on spending a few hundred on that. I don't want to limit myself or try to stick w/ a budget for that one. It's my brother and I want to get him something thoughtful with butterflies & rainbows & don't want oh, you're blowing your budget thoughts in the back of my mind.

Total Budgeted: $480, Total Spent: $352

Overall under budget but over budget in the food area. I guess I am a girl that loves her food as the two areas I went over in was eating out and groceries.

For February, the budgets the same but I am going to up my Eating Out bucket to $130 and bring my Misc down to $20.